The NS mainline IIRC has a defect detector so the Defect Detector should have warned about the bad hotbox. Did NS ignore it?
Those tank cars could have been safely drained off to trucks or other tank cars.
Bkmk
Notes from the East Palestine disaster:
The burning of chlorinated hydrocarbons (any compound containing carbon, hydrogen and chlorine), has the potential to produce dioxins, Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins (PCDDs).
Heating causes Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) to polymerise (form chlorinated benzine chains). Contact with the air, sunlight and minerals in the soil can act as a catalyst, accelerating the polymerization process.
The controlled burn proceeded after the VCM had been drained into a nearby trench, providing a pathway for PCDD production.
Residents in the area (East Palestine) reported a thin oily residue on windows and other surfaces which would be consistent with fallout from suspended particulate matter (toxins from the controlled burn). Several days later, residents in West Virginia and Maryland reported ash-like particles falling from the sky like snow, accumulating on cars and other surfaces.
Black smoke from incomplete combustion is only one component of this disaster, most likely one of the largest releases of dioxins since Times Beach. A temperature inversion aloft during the burn prevented the contaminants from escaping the boundary layer, causing fumigation near the surface.